before the Beatles being Elvis Presley’s eponymous album of 1956,
which was famously to be used as the inspiration for The Clash’s London
Calling (1979) cover as well as Tom Wait’s Rain Dogs (1985). In the
same way that Pennie Smith captured the raw punk spirit The Clash
were trying to encapsulate, the photograph of Presley, off-centre and
juxtaposed with the seated DJ Fontana draws the energy of Rock ‘n’ Roll
into focus – Elvis unable to be contained.
The highlight of The Beatle’s dalliance with album artwork was
the Peter Blake designed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967),
a cover which cost £2,868 5s/3d to produce, estimated at around 100
times the average cost of an album cover at the time, as well as causing
a great deal of problems for EMI in trying to get the permission for
the images used in Michael Cooper’s photograph. Over 70 celebrated
figures featured, as well as The Beatle’s themselves, not only in their
Sgt. Pepper’s guises but also the Madame Tussaud waxworks depicting
A selection of classic vinyl album covers predominantly form the 1970s
“
“
What the music industry failed to take into account
is that people do not necessarily want listening to
music to be a pragmatic task.
their famous mop-haired period. Hitler, Ghandi and Jesus were
requested by the band, but EMI supposed this would cause too much
controversy, whilst the band had to personally write to Mae West to
persuade her to be included.
Even earlier The Velvet Underground teamed music with
cutting edge art when Andy Warhol ‘produced’ their debut album,
The Velvet Underground and Nico, stamping his contribution with the
renowned banana sleeve design. Initial runs of the album had the
banana skin stuck on, when peeled revealing a phallic, fleshed coloured
banana. Warhol’s most significant collaboration came with the Rolling
Stones for 1971’s Sticky Fingers, the cover featuring a working jeans fly
which unzipped to reveal a man’s white cotton pants.
Without the large format these album covers would never have
come about. Who knows, the resurgence in vinyl could bring about the
return of the album of two halves again; meticulously planned to take
the listener on a journey, the halfway point necessitated by the two
sided format and rendered unattainable by the CD and digital download.
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